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Monday, June 2, 2014

It is an End for Freedom of Expression in #Egypt For the Time being : Bassem Youssef’s show suspended

And Bassem Youssef announced this sad news today at his Radio Theater studio : There will be no more “ElBernmag” TV show.

The end of the show

Yup Egypt’s first and best satire TV show has been suspended as expected.
The international award winning TV host announced in press conference today that the TV show would be suspended on MBC Misr because of pressures. He could have reduced but the tempo but he and his team refused.
He also refused to transfer the show outside Egypt or even to air on foreign channel.
“I am tired of being worried on my family and my safety” He said thanking MBC Misr wondering what made some in Egypt fear a satire show like that.
Needless to say the pressures he spoke about are the pressure of Saudi Arabia on MBC Group as well the Egyptian state , after all Saudi Arabia and allegedly King Abdullah of KSA interfered him to stop the so-called insults against the Egyptian army. I do not think that King Abdullah watches “ElBernmag” and you do not need to guess that he got some calls from angry people in Cairo.
Well we will not forget this for King Abdullah and MBC.MBC Misr has got now Akram El-Hosny’s silly sarcastic show instead of Bassem. El-Hosny who is El-Sisi’s supporter and all the supporters of the Field Marshal like his conservative tamed comedy.
Let’s be clear here , the new elected president is a conservative military man whose sense of humor is a classical one and his new entourage is scared that he would be only mocked. They fear that Youssef would mock him like Morsi breaking that idolism he gained.
You know when Jon Stewart was in Cairo and appeared on Bassem’s show , I think he said a very amazing fact “ The regime that fears or fights a joke , is not actually true regime”
It is true , in fact that regime would be the real joke.
Just last year Youssef was boasting in Dubai media forum that Egypt had then the biggest freedom of expression in the Arab world. I think it was too fast. Every thing we earned by blood in 2011 is taken.
Needless to say this did not happen during Morsi’s presidential term , hell another uprising would have taken place if Youssef’s show was suspended like that.
I am angry , sorry furious.
Now when I think about the January 25th revolution icons I found the following : Mohamed ElBaradei is in Vienna and will teach law in some US university , Wael Ghonim has started a new career in Google ventures , Ahmed Maher and Mahienour El-Masry are in Jail for illegal protesting along couple of names that played a role in the 18 days , another group of activists have been tarnished with accusations of treasons and illegal private calls on TV channels , official laws against protesting as well laws that allow security force to monitor and spy on social media’s networks and accounts.
Of course now we got no more Bassem Youssef along with all the Pro-revolutionary TV hosts and columnists like Reem Mageud and Balel Fadel.
At the same time El-Koba Palace is ready for a legendary presidential inauguration for El-Sisi next Sunday where not less than 35 president and king including Russia’s Putin are invited for a big gala. I bet there will be an air show in the sky.
Anyhow I am optimistic , I have to keep that dream we had on Jan25 and to believe that Bassem Youssef and his amazing team will be back to expose the media bias and hypocrisy sooner and not later. Thank you Bassem Youssef and El-Bernmag team for making history in Egyptian media for real and thanking for exposing Arab regimes as a true joke.

13 comments
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"if we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise we dont believe in it at all" Zenoubia...you castigate King Abdullah of putting pressure to stop criticism of eygpts new Pharoe but surely your humanity should castigate him all the more for funding the massacring of innocents during the bloody coup, for banning freedom of speech for pro-islamist channels (whatever that means in a muslim country!!!). Again despite my voting for AF I find myself ore and more being forced into acknowledging that the MB actually were not so bad. They won the elections. The never dominated the cabinets, they offered positions to opposition including the VP to sabbahi, They didnt ban films of programes, allowed bassems satire. They won the largest amount of votes and we needed to replace them through the ballot boxes. To quote chomsky and not see the need for us now to recognise or failure to defend their (democratic) rights would be amiss. All of us who in small ways allowed the coup to have fig leasf of cover are at fualt in this and the MB for all their faults should have been removed at the elections. We should have all defended their legitimacy and we are now paying the price.

Of course the government's beltageyya would have killed him. 40.000 in jail, thousands killed in the streets of Cairo that shows you the regime's true colors. But I must admit: no problem at all! Better a military dictator then a terrorist like Morsi.

I wonder what world you live in ? Of course he could get arrested or the government could instigate people like you to assault and harass him and his family. I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but if the majority of Egyptians hate him, yet he has the highest viewership, what will his ratings be if they truly love him?

I'm worried for your safety Zenoiba. We can see the fear starting to gain full speed ahead amongst the citizenry. Take care as a new law is being formulated I read, to severely limit social media in your country.

I suppose I should feel more sorry, but I have not forgotten his support for the murders at Rabaa and the coup. The fact that he and the other Egyptian 'liberals' are now being treated the same way they begged the army to treat the supporters of a democratically elected president feels almost more like poetic justice, as childish as it is. He asked to be a slave and now he is being treated like one.

Still, everyone deserves freedom of speech, even advocates of mass killing like Bassem shouldn't be denied a platform for their other views. It certainly makes Sisi look petty, even people who celebrate his atrocities aren't servile enough for him

Please get your facts right. True liberals like Basem and , and Nawara and Reem and Belal, never advocated for the killings. They were even off the air in protest, while being attacked by both sides. Read their tweets at the time. Other liberals are now in jail. Any human who condones massacres of any faction or race could never be a liberal or even human.

His good salary was earned from critizing everything without a hint of analisys of the situation on groud. He was no funny at all, he lacks the sense of the comedy on the screen. He did not go deep in knowing why things happen, he kept only in the surface, very poor study of the events.

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